Method vs Strong: a workout tracker comparison for program-first training

The short version of each app

Strong describes itself as a workout tracker and gym log. You add routines and choose between them, log sets with an automatic countdown rest timer, group exercises into supersets, and use its warm-up and plate calculators. Its website lists RPE, Apple Health, CSV export, custom timers, body part measurements, Siri Shortcuts, and workout scheduling among its features. The App Store listing says the free version can save unlimited workouts and is limited to three custom routines.

Method is a workout planner and tracker for athletes who write their own training. The web app is where programs are built. A program has blocks, weeks, and sessions. Each session holds strength exercises and cardio activities, each with a prescription, and is scheduled to a date. The iPhone app starts the scheduled session, logs it, and keeps what happened separate from what was planned. Method does not generate programs.

Side by side

Facts about Strong come from its App Store listing and website on the date shown at the top of this page. Facts about Method come from the shipped product.

Where Method is stronger

A real program editor on a large screen. Method's web app is the place to build and revise a program. Duplicate a week and choose how many copies, reorder days and apply the order to other weeks, bulk edit a field across any scope from the current session to every week, and swap exercises across the whole program. Strong's listing does not describe a desktop or web surface.

Detail in the prescription. Reps as an exact number, a range, or AMRAP. Intensity as RIR or RPE with half values. Rest, tempo, and notes per set. A load instruction relative to the previous set, the last working set, or the top set. Intensity is stored once as reps in reserve and shown in whichever scale you prefer.

Suggested loads from your own sets. With the setting on, Method estimates a one rep max from your most recent eligible set using reps plus reps in reserve, and inverts it for the target reps and RIR of the set you are about to do. The explanation ships with the number.

Cardio in the same record. Twenty activity types on iPhone or Apple Watch, GPS routes for outdoor run, walk, and ride, heart rate and laps, plus Apple Watch and Apple Fitness workouts arriving through Apple Health with their route and heart rate series. Completed cardio is written back to Apple Health.

Richer exports. Method's CSV is one row per logged set, with the intensity column named and valued in your RIR or RPE preference, the weight in both your display unit and kilograms, and the originally entered value. Pro also produces PDFs of your history summary with per-exercise estimated 1RM charts, of any program, and of analytics.

Where Strong is stronger

Platforms. Strong runs on iPhone, Android, and Apple Watch. Method is iPhone plus web, with a cardio-only Watch app.

Lifting on Apple Watch. Strong's listing describes a fully featured Apple Watch app for logging workouts with or without the iPhone. Method logs strength on the phone only.

Simplicity and speed to first workout. Strong is a routine logger you can start using in a minute. Method asks you to think in programs and sessions, which is the point, but it is more to set up.

Calculators. Strong ships warm-up and plate calculators. Method has neither.

History. Strong's free version saves unlimited workouts. Method's free tier shows the last 30 days of history; older records are kept and become visible with Pro.

Pricing, read carefully

Both apps are free to start and both sell a paid tier as a subscription or a one-time purchase. On the date checked, Strong PRO's 1-year price was $29.99 against Method Pro's $24.99, and Strong PRO Forever was $99.99 against Method Pro Lifetime at $74.99. Strong also offers a 6-month option at $19.99, which Method does not.

The free tiers limit different things. Strong limits custom routines to three and saves unlimited workouts. Method limits total programming to 6 weeks, history to the last 30 days, saved sessions to 4, and custom exercises to 25, and warns at 3 and 5 weeks before the programming wall. A lapsed Method Pro account keeps its data, with programs over the budget archived rather than deleted.

Method's web prices are set in your region's currency and shown on the pricing page. App Store prices for either app follow Apple's price tiers and can differ by country.

Who should pick which

Pick Strong if you want the fastest possible gym log, you are on Android, you lift from your Apple Watch, or you want unlimited free history with a handful of routines.

Pick Method if you write multi-week programs and want to edit them on a big screen, you want RIR or RPE targets and suggested loads computed from your own sets, you want cardio and Apple Health workouts in the same history as your lifting, and you want your data out as CSV and PDF.

What Method does not do

Method has no Android app, no iPad app, no lifting on Apple Watch, no warm-up or plate calculator, and no import of Strong history. The web app does not log workouts. Method does not write programs for you.